ST. PAUL, Minn.—Ukrainian Mykola Antonenko took the lead at the seven-mile mark of the Twin Cities Marathon Sunday, and never looked back. Figuratively speaking, anyway.

Antonenko did look back several times throughout the race, but there wasn’t much to see. He slowly but surely built a lead that eventually eclipsed six minutes on the rest of the pack, one of the most dominating performances in the marathon’s history.

His time of 2 hours, 13 minutes and 54 seconds was six minutes and 18 seconds in front of second place finisher Joseph Mutinda, but Antonenko felt he could’ve set a personal record — which is currently 2:13:28 — had he been pushed by his competitors.

“Psychologically, it’s hard to run by yourself that early in the race,” he said through a translator. “I looked back and was surprised, why weren’t they running?”

Antonenko ran in the Twin Cities Marathon in 2004, placing second behind Augustus Kavutu Mbusya. The two were neck-and-neck for the first eight miles Sunday, but this time it was the 35-year old Antonenko who would pull away. Mbusya, considered the favorite by many, finished third.

Between the ten- and 18-mile mark, Antonenko ran eight of nine miles in under five minutes, and by the 20-mile mark he had opened up more than a two-minute lead.

The race-time temperature was 72 degrees, the hottest on record for the race, and the temperature slowed the pace early on. Antonenko said it was the most difficult heat he has ever had to run in, and poured water on himself at every opportunity along the course.

The marathon’s medical director, Steve Sterner, said 250 people were helped at the medical tent for heat exhaustion, dehydration and heatstroke, compared to 160 treated in last year’s race, and three runners were admitted to Hennepin County Medical Center to be held overnight for observation. Fifteen runners were treated at other hospitals, he said.

“It was tough, I expected it to be a lot cooler,” said second-place finisher Joseph Mutinda. Mutinda, a Kenyan, was in fourth place at the 20-mile mark, but overcame a nagging hamstring to make up ground on the final stretch.

Besides the Ukrainian Antonenko, the front pack consisted of all Kenyan runners. The top American male runners avoided running the full-marathon because of the Olympic Marathon Trials in New York next month. They instead competed in the 10-mile race, which was won by Abdi Abdirahman.

Russian Svetlana Ponomarenko won the women’s race with relative ease with a time of 2:34:09. The 2006 Dallas White Rock Marathon champion took control early as the field spread out. Toward the end of the race there was more than a minute gap between each of the top four female runners.

“I felt very prepared for the race,” Ponomarenko said through a translator, “so at the halfway mark I just made my move.”

Ponomarenko said she anticipates returning next year to defend her title.

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